Nancy Pelosi Optimistic About Taking the House, but Doesn’t Want ‘Bonanza’ From Kavanaugh Blowback
House minority leader will spend more time in D.C. awaiting opportunity to lead in 2019
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Friday she would rather not get an electoral boost from Senate Republicans confirming Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court without first having an FBI investigation of sexual assault allegations against him.
“If it benefits Democrats politically, it’s a bonanza that we don’t want, that we do not want,” the California Democrat said. “What we want is integrity on the Supreme Court.”
“There are people out there, including my own daughter, who think the president is trying to break the #MeToo movement, to say we don’t care what you have to say, we don’t want to know anything further,” she said. “It takes great courage to come forward.”
Pelosi later said that she agreed with her daughter’s assessment that President Donald Trump wants to stop the momentum for sexual assault victims to come forward with allegations against men in power.
“It isn’t for us a political issue. It isn’t something that we fan the flame of. We just want them to have [an] investigation,” Pelosi said. “So the integrity of the court is upheld and the respect for the woman making the allegations is there, and that should be in every case.”
“I think yesterday, with the lack of temperament and lack of dignity in his presentation, that Judge Kavanaugh was doing an imitation of President Trump,” the minority leader said.
But the level of political engagement among Democrats and independents who are motivated by animus toward Trump might well help deliver Democrats to the House majority in the elections just 39 days from now.
“We have work to do,” Pelosi said. “We have to be ready, but also I’ll be in and out. I’m going to Texas this weekend and then I’ll be back on Monday.”
The House held its final expected votes before departing for the pre-election recess on Friday. Pelosi herself will be back in D.C., for events and honors scheduled before the House decided to hit the road.
After that, Pelosi will be back on the road ahead of Election Day.
“We take nothing for granted, but we feel very optimistic about the opportunity that is there,” Pelosi said. “It also springs from the motivation that I have never seen before of people … seeing the urgency and want to take responsibility for what happens.”
“We intend to own the ground,” Pelosi said.